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      Storm Updates: California Braces for Heavy Rains and Flooding

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      Millions of people in California were under a flood watch as an atmospheric river was expected to engulf much of the state in heavy rains on Sunday, forecasters said.The West Coast braced for more flooding on Sunday as heavy rains from an atmospheric river were forecast to spread over California starting on Sunday, in the latest series of storms to pound the state this month.A milder storm moved over California’s northern and central coast on Saturday night, kicking off the period of rain for the nation’s most populous state. Forecasters said it was a precursor to a more powerful system on Sunday that was expected to bring the bulk of the precipitation.“Sunday night and Monday alone, we’re looking at areas three to six inches of rain down the coast south of the Bay Area to Santa Barbara,” said Brian Hurley, a senior meteorologist at the National Weather Service.More than 37 million people nationwide were under a flood watch on Sunday. Most were in California, where the watch was in effect through Wednesday, according to the Weather Service.Atmospheric river is the name given to the narrow bands of moisture blown over the West Coast by winds in the Pacific. They are the cause of California’s heaviest rains and floods.“The weather conditions will be drastically different from Sunday morning to Sunday night,” the Weather Service said on Sunday. “A strong storm will arrive today. Rain will begin around midday and will be heavy through the night. Moderate to major impacts from this storm will last into Monday with heavy rain, strong winds, high surf, thunderstorms and flooding potential.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Was Boston’s Snow Forecast a Bust? Depends on Whom You Ask.

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      The quick-moving winter storm sweeping across the Northeast was once poised to blanket the Boston area with up to a foot of snow but will now push farther south than expected, cutting snowfall totals in the region by more than half than expected earlier, according to the latest estimates.“Snow lovers may be very upset that snow totals have decreased because the system has moved farther south,” Torry Dooley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boston said by phone early Tuesday. “But other folks that are maybe not as into the snow may be rejoicing this morning that the snow totals have come down.”No matter where weather watchers land on snow debate, Mr. Dooley emphasized that the weather is fickle and predictions are just that — predictions.“Our weather is a very fluid thing,” Mr. Dooley said. “So the atmosphere is very fluid. Forecasts do evolve with better data.”Officials in Boston kept a close eye on the storm and ultimately closed schools on Tuesday. Nearby school systems, like in Plymouth and Salem, made the same decision.Mr. Dooley said Weather Service meteorologists do not discuss school closing decisions with officials and that superintendents make those judgment calls.On Monday afternoon, meteorologists began receiving newer data showing the storm’s track shifting farther and farther south.While snowfall expectations for the Boston region have significantly diminished since the original forecast, southern Massachusetts can still expect several inches through Tuesday afternoon.Still, the Boston area will not be completely unaffected. Light rain showers were expected to transition to snow before 9 a.m.“Once that happens, we’ll have some moderate snowfall,” Mr. Dooley said. “Areas around Boston can expect, generally four to six inches of snow, throughout today.” More

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      Winter Storm Forecast: Parts of the Northeast Could Get a Foot of Snow

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      The heaviest snow is expected in parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and southern New England starting on Monday into Tuesday, forecasters said.A winter storm is expected to move through the Northeast starting on Monday and lasting into Tuesday, bringing up to a foot of snow in some areas stretching from central Pennsylvania to the Catskills and Hudson Valley in New York, forecasters said.As of Saturday, the storm was over the Southern Plains in the southwestern United States, but over the next couple of days it will work its way east and then northeast.The heaviest snow is expected from northern Pennsylvania, far northwestern New Jersey and southern New York into interior southern New England, where locally a foot or more of snow could fall, said Bill Deger, a senior meteorologist for AccuWeather.In these areas, snowfall rates could exceed an inch an hour for a time, he said.The heaviest snowfalls will most likely be north of New York City, said Frank Pereira, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center.Forecasts on Saturday called for up to a foot of snow from central Pennsylvania through the Catskills and Hudson Valley in New York and then across portions of southern New England, Connecticut and Massachusetts and through the metropolitan Boston area.The precipitation is expected to start as rain on Monday night in New York City and then turn to snow late on Tuesday morning, said David Stark, a meteorologist for the Weather Service office in New York. He said he did not expect high snow totals but added that it was too early to tell.The rain-to-snow mix can be dangerous for drivers, Mr. Deger said.“Rain falling before snow makes it very difficult for municipalities to prepare roads for the wintry weather,” he noted, “as any pretreatment can be washed away before temperatures fall below freezing and snow starts to accumulate.”Drivers should anticipate a difficult commute on Tuesday in eastern Pennsylvania through the New York City area and into the Hudson Valley and southern New England, where visibility could be reduced by locally heavy snow, Mr. Deger said.During the high tide on Tuesday in the early afternoon, “there might be pockets of minor, maybe even moderate, coastal flooding along the East Coast,” said Rob Megnia, a meteorologist for the Weather Service office in Boston. “People should be aware of that even if they’re not expecting a lot of snow.”Mr. Pereira of the Weather Prediction Center said the storm would be “fairly fast-moving.”“As we get into Tuesday evening into the overnight, the system is going to be out into the open Atlantic waters,” he said, adding that the storm should be over by Wednesday morning. More

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      Many Southern California Schools Will Remain Open Despite Floods

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      Most school districts in Southern California, including Los Angeles Unified, the second-largest in the country, were planning to keep most classrooms open on Monday, officials said, even as the state battled heavy rain, flooding and mudslides.Many students depend on schools for basic nutrition, the Los Angeles superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, said at a news conference on Sunday, explaining why he had decided not to close most of the district. The impact of the wind and rain will also vary greatly by neighborhood, he said, meaning that many schools will not be as badly affected.On Monday morning, Los Angeles Unified said that winds were forecast to diminish in the morning, citing it as a reason to keep schools open. Los Angeles Unified has more than 400,000 students in more than 700 schools across the district. At least one, Vinedale College Preparatory Academy in Sun Valley, will be closed because it is in a mandatory evacuation area. Those students will report to a different school, according to the district. A flash flood warning was in effect for more than 85,000 people in Los Angeles County and Ventura County until 9 a.m. Pacific on Monday, the National Weather Service said.Other districts in Southern California, including Santa Monica-Malibu, Long Beach and San Diego, also had not announced any plans to close as of early Monday morning.Long Beach Unified School District said on social media that it would trim trees and remove debris from roofs to “eliminate potential hazards.” It also asked parents to prioritize safety and leave more time for drop off and pickup.Santa Barbara Unified Schools, a smaller district north of Los Angeles, was closed on Monday as a precautionary measure, officials said. “This decision prioritizes the safety and well-being of our students and staff during potentially hazardous weather conditions,” the school district said in a statement. More

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      Southern California Faces ‘High Risk’ of Excessive Rain and Flooding

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      The Weather Prediction Center issued a rare “high risk” prediction of excessive rain for parts of Southern California, saying eight inches could fall.Parts of Southwest California on Sunday braced for heavy rains — potentially as much as an inch an hour — that could lead to life-threatening floods and “one of the most dramatic weather days in recent memory,” forecasters said.An intensifying coastal storm will strengthen an atmospheric river that will stream warm tropical moisture into California. Rare forecasts have been issued for life-threatening flooding, hurricane-force winds, waterspouts, tornadoes and heavy snowfall across California from Sunday into Monday.“This major storm will bring a multitude of dangerous weather conditions to the area,” the National Weather Service in Los Angeles said on Sunday morning.The Weather Prediction Center issued a rare “high risk” prediction of excessive rain in an area that includes Santa Barbara, Ventura and Oxnard, saying eight or more inches of rain could fall in a 24-hour period.Over the past decade, some of the deadliest and most destructive floods have occurred in areas that forecasters said were at this level of risk, which is a category they rarely use.About half the time a high risk is issued, there is at least one fatality or injury, and about two out of every three times, there is at least $1 million in damage, according to data from the Weather Prediction Center.

      Possibility of excessive rain Sunday More

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      Maps: Track the Latest Atmospheric Rivers to Hit California

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      A pair of atmospheric rivers is expected to hit the Western United States and Canada in the coming days. Follow our coverage here. Atmospheric rivers are essentially moisture streams in the sky and are often visible from space as narrow bands stretching from the West Coast out across the Pacific. As these long, thin storm […] More

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      Colombia, Normally a Wet Country, Battles Widespread Wildfires

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      Firefighters, many of them volunteers, have been confronting dozens of blazes amid high temperatures this month. The conditions have been linked to climate change.Helicopters hauling buckets of water fly toward the mountains where fires burn, a thick haze periodically covers the sky, and residents have been ordered to wear masks and limit driving because of the poor air quality.For a full week, firefighters have been battling fires in the mountains around Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, as dozens of other blazes have burned across the country, in what officials say is the hottest January in three decades.The president has declared a national disaster and asked for international help fighting the fires, which he says could reach beyond the Andes Mountains and erupt on the Pacific Coast and in the Amazon.Colombia’s fires this month are unusual in a country where people are more accustomed to torrential rain and mudslides than fire and ash. They have been attributed to high temperatures and drought exacerbated by the climate phenomenon known as El Niño.Ricardo Lozano, a geologist and former environment minister of Colombia, said El Niño was a natural phenomenon that occurred cyclically, but that with climate change, “these events are more and more intense and more and more extreme.”Heavy smoke from wildfires near the capital, Bogotá.Federico Rios for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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      More Atmospheric Rivers Are on the Way. Here’s What the West Can Expect.

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      A sequence of atmospheric rivers will bring heavy rainfall and snow to the Western U.S. and Canada over the next week.The Western United States and Canada are likely to see excessive rain and heavy snowfall from a sequence of back-to-back atmospheric rivers beginning this weekend and continuing into next week.An atmospheric river is like a powerful fire hose with only one person holding it. It often has a narrow path of the heaviest and strongest precipitation. It can be challenging to pinpoint where the heaviest stream of water will fall. It could be strong in the San Francisco Bay Area, and little might fall in Southern California, or vice versa.This early in the forecast, meteorologists are certain that the weather pattern is set up for a series of atmospheric river events — in some locations likely reaching a three or a four on the Atmospheric River five-point scale developed by the SCRIPPS Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego — along the West Coast. But they are less certain where the heaviest precipitation will fall, especially later in the week. There are at least three atmospheric rivers over the next week, and an additional one beyond that. More